


Kittens and Computers

by cleanlittlesecret



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Cats, Future Fic, Gen, Harm to Animals, VRAINS Week 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-18
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-06-12 13:27:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15340848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cleanlittlesecret/pseuds/cleanlittlesecret
Summary: "I got a cat.""Pardon?"(Written for the prompt "being an adult.")





	Kittens and Computers

The apartment lay steeped in afternoon quiet, a stillness disturbed only by the gentle clatter of typing and the whir of the space heater’s fan until a ringing tone broke through and made Yuusaku jump in his seat. His eyes darted from the text on his computer’s screen to glare at the cellphone lying beside the monitor, but at the sight of the name _Kusanagi Shouichi_ , he answered. The screen filled with video of Kusanagi looking back at him—the difference in time zones meant it was morning on the other end of the call, so Kusanagi looked fresh while Yuusaku fought the urge to yawn.

“Hey, Yuusaku! What’s up?”

“I got a cat.”

Kusanagi frowned. “Pardon?”

* * *

If he had known the creature scratching around his tiny balcony was going to shoot inside the second he opened the door, Yuusaku would have ignored its crying. Before he could even try to grab it, the fluffy blur had darted under his couch to hide among the dust bunnies, and that was how he ended up lying on his living-room floor first thing in the morning and shining his phone’s camera light under the couch in a fruitless attempt to find a black furball in the darkness.

“Come _on_ already.” He squinted for even a single glint of reflected light. “I’m going to miss my train…” The phone’s screen flashed to life as it rang, and Yuusaku scowled at the garbled text overflowing the line where the caller ID should have been. “No.” He blocked the attempted call and returned to his search, but the next time the phone rang, the call answered itself.

“Oi, Yuusaku! Why’d you hang up on me?”

Getting a smartphone had been a mistake.

Purple and black flitted across the screen as Ai appeared in place of a contact photo and narrowed his glowing eyes. “ _Heeeey, Yuusakuuuuu._ Are you there?”

Yuusaku pulled his phone from under the couch and rolled onto his back to hold the screen over his face. “I’m busy. Hang up.”

“Why are you lying on the floor? Shouldn’t you be getting ready for work?”

Yuusaku forced a long breath through his nose. Even if he turned off the phone, the apartment contained plenty of ways for a sentient AI to get at him, so he might as well meet Ai’s demands. “Some animal is currently hiding underneath my couch, so I’m trying to get it out.”

“An animal?”

“I didn’t get a good look, but I think it was a cat—or a kitten, judging by the size.”

The glowing eyes changed to heart shapes. “Aww, a little kitty-chan! I want to see it!”

“That’s the problem. I know the cat should be under here, but I can’t find it.”

“Really?” Ai tilted his head. “I think I can help. Turn your phone’s volume all the way up and stick it under the couch.” Yuusaku raised an eyebrow but did as he’d been told, and just as he covered one ear with his free hand, an enormous roar burst from the phone, and a yowling kitten shot into the open. “Did it work?” Ai yelled as Yuusaku scrambled to his feet. He squawked when the phone was tossed onto the couch. “ _Hey, Yuusaku!_ ”

“Shut up before you wake my neighbors.”

Ai let out a loud whine, but Yuusaku focused on the kitten cowering in a corner of the room with its fur fluffed to maximum volume. Despite the posturing and hissing, the kitten looked to be in bad shape—too small to be independent and half-blinded by matted fur on its forehead. Yuusaku had planned to return the kitten to the balcony the second he got ahold of it, but now he questioned that idea as he knelt to reach out a hand. The hissing grew louder and higher-pitched as the kitten swatted with extended claws, but Yuusaku ignored the weak hits as he scooped the kitten off the floor. The matted fur coated his fingertips with red when he touched it, and while the kitten continued its struggle at first by squirming in his grip and clawing at his hands, it soon went still as its tiny sides heaved from the effort.

“ _Yuusaku-chaaaan,_ ” Ai called in a stage whisper. “What’s going on?”

Yuusaku picked up the phone and lowered its volume. “The cat’s hurt.” He turned the phone to let the selfie camera see the kitten, and Ai whistled.

“Oof, that looks bad. Are you going to take it to the doctor?”

“Guess so.”

“That’s my Yuusaku-sama! Always being the hero for those who can’t help themselves!”

Yuusaku shifted his grip to cradle the kitten against his chest. “Ai.”

“Yes?”

“I need to call into work and tell them I won’t be there on time. Hang up.”

“Ah, right. Bye then.” Ai disappeared as the call ended, and the kitten breathed a tiny sigh. Too exhausted to worry about danger, it had already fallen asleep against him, so Yuusaku made sure to keep his voice low when he made his next call.

* * *

When Yuusaku called the startup software company where he worked and told his boss he would be late that day, but he promised to have his assignment finished on time regardless, and his boss sighed and said, _All right, Fujiki,_ because everyone there already knew better than to argue with him, he didn’t have a cat.

When he traveled halfway across Den City with the kitten in a cardboard box to see a vet and be told the kitten was a boy barely old enough to be separated from its mother, and he should bring it back in a week to have the stitches on its forehead removed, but he protested he didn’t _own_ the thing, it had just slipped into his apartment that morning, and the vet pursed her lips, he didn’t have a cat.

When he stopped on his way home from work later in the day to buy some basic things like milk, kitten food, and a blanket entirely for the kitten’s use, he didn’t have a cat.

But then a neighbor stopped him in the hall to tell him to make sure he didn’t leave food scraps where animals could get to them because strays had been seen hanging around the building, and a black cat had been found dead on the sidewalk that morning, and, well.

Now he had a cat.

Of course, Kusanagi found the whole thing hilarious, but he tamed his runaway grin enough to ask, “So can I see the cat?” Yuusaku scooped the kitten from his lap and held it in view despite the squeaking protests it made at being so rudely awakened. With its forehead shaved to clear the way for the stitches, the kitten looked goofy, but Kusanagi still cooed over it. “Yep, that’s a proper little fluffball. By the way, are you allowed to have pets where you live?”

“Probably not.” Yuusaku set the kitten down, and with a huff, it returned to its curled position in his lap.

“What are you going to name him?”

“I haven’t thought about it yet.”

Kusanagi brought a hand to his chin. “Well, we know what kind of names you like to give, so how about something like Kitty, Blackie, Stitches, Freeloader…” Yuusaku scowled as the list continued until it hit things like _USB Cable_ , but then a message blinked into view in the corner of his computer’s screen and opened itself before he could click it, and his teeth ground together.

“Oi, Yuusaku!” Ai bounced onto the screen and blocked most of the code Yuusaku had been editing from view. “How are things going with that cat?”

The kitten raised its head and wobblily looked around, but when it saw Ai on the screen, it hissed and scrambled upright to arch its back. Yuusaku ran a hand over the fluffed fur as he said, “It’s staying here now. The vet gave it stitches and said I’ll need to take it back there in a week.”

Ai’s head took up more of the screen as he leaned forward. “You’re keeping it?! Are you replacing me?”

“You haven’t lived with me in years.”

“How cruel! I may be staying in Cyberse World now, but in my heart I’m always with you!”

Yuusaku bit back a retort about computer programs not having hearts as Kusanagi said, “Ai, we were just talking about what Yuusaku should name the cat. Do you have any ideas?”

“You’re naming it too?” The outlines of his eyes squirmed as if welling with tears. “Does our precious friendship mean nothing to you anymore?”

Yuusaku set his phone in front of the computer’s monitor. “I think it’s time for me to feed the cat again, so how about the two of you talk while I’m gone?”

“ _Hey!_ ” Ai squawked as Kusanagi chuckled. “You didn’t answer my question, Yuusaku!”

But Yuusaku had already made his escape with the kitten. The apartment didn’t give him much room to hide from the computer’s view, but if he had any luck whatsoever, Ai would have forgotten the subject by time he returned from the kitchen.


End file.
